Chapter 13

Laura

The world wriggled before my eyes as I crouched on the unforgiving grip of the road and gazed at the unmoving form slumped on the ground. All over my chest, the heart pummeled in unrelenting speed, to razor-thin beat like a battle cry, each beat a knell that this could not be.

“No, no, no! I took a breath, rising and walking forward, breath held rapt in my chest. “Christian! Christian!”

I shook my brother's shoulders lightly, desperately trying to find any sign of life yet his eyelids shut, skin ashen against the road. Panic surged within me, filling my veins with ice. “Please, God… Please!”

As if by cue, the ringing of car alarms swept the streets, an audibility I never knew otherwise but in the hope. On the other hand, when I hit the top on his face I felt nothing, no sensation of warmth, no sensation of pulse. Just an emptiness that swallowed me whole.

“Step back! Give him space! A voice echoed through the crowd and I became seized by grasping hands on my shoulders as they swept me from the group.

“No! He’s my brother! Let me go! I struggled, but my legs felt heavy, weighed down by shock and dread.

“Ma’am, please!” The paramedic’s voice broke through my haze. “We need to check his vitals. You must step away.”

I could barely hear the words. My brain was literally on fire with my mind a jumble after witnessing my sibling on the sidewalk. “Christian! I wept again, but my voice was a sigh now, but a thin line of sound fighting against the noise up and around me.

Laura! A voice unmistakable to me, cut through the clamor and I looked up to see Adlan squeezing through the people, his features strained with worry. He bent down to me, his bulk momentarily anchoring me.

“What happened? He told me, in a quiet, flat voice, albeit I heard the fear in the eyes.

“I don’t know! I was just—” I stuttered, tears spilling over. “I thought he was in London! He shouldn’t be here! He shouldn’t be here!”

Adlan’s hand encircled my arm tight as the paramedic began the procedure. I just sat there passively watching them apply the pulse on Christian, with the same tacit, numb look upon their features.

“Is he… is he going to be okay? I asked, my voice breaking.

One of the paramedics looked up, his expression unreadable. “We’re doing everything we can. We need to get him to the hospital.”

They lifted Christian onto a stretcher, and I felt Adlan’s arm wrap around me, offering comfort as I trembled. “I’m right here, Laura. You’re not alone.”

I tried to believe him, but the burden of hopelessness was literally crushing me. “What if he doesn’t make it?”

“Don't be like that," Adlan proclaimed with the firmness of his eye piercing my soul. “We need to stay positive. He’s strong.”

While they wheeled Christian by, I struggled to maintain composure. “Can I go with him? I asked the paramedics, my voice pleading.

“Of course,” one of them replied. “Just hop in the ambulance.”

I nodded, speechless, and sat in back of the ambulance where Adlan stood looking expectantly. Doors slammed shut and cut us off, sealed in while the siren wailed back into life.

“Please, Christian, move in with me,” I gasped, holding on to my brother's hand in mine. “Please stay with me.”

As I listened to the ambulance screaming down the streets, I understood the cry of the far Adlan for the paramedics, but it sounded like a dream voice, a phantom voice, an echo. All I could focus on was my brother; his face, his laugh, the way he always knew how to make me smile, even when life felt unbearable.

Laura, Adlan murmured, his voice piercing the mist. “He’s going to be okay. You have to believe that.”

I glanced at him, searching his eyes for reassurance. “What if he doesn’t wake up? What if I lost him?”

Adlan's face softened and he walked up to me, removing one of my tears with his thumb. “You won’t lose him. You’re strong, and so is he. You’ve been through so much together.”

I nodded, but an inscrutable question lingered at the edges of my thought.

At the hospital, the paramedics threw Christian out, and I leaped from the ambulance and my heart seemed to beat in my chest. I followed them in, holding Adlan's hand as we entered the ER.

“Please, someone help him!” I cried and my sob tore through the medical atmosphere of the hospital.

“We’ll do everything we can.”

The minutes crawled by, each one an eternity. I paced back and forth, consumed by worry. Adlan just stayed with me, without a word, ever present and encouraging while we waited to hear.

Finally, a doctor emerged, his expression serious. “Are you family?”

“Yes!” I rushed forward, clenching Adlan’s hand tighter. “I’m his sister. What happened? Is he okay?”

The doctor took a deep breath. “He has a concussion and some broken ribs. We’ve stabilized him, but he’s still unconscious. We need to monitor him closely.”

Relief washed over me, but it came with fear. “Will he wake up?”

“It’s too early to say at present. However, you observe him only for brief periods of time, for a few seconds,”

“May I go first?” I inquired, my pulse back to the head again.

The doctor nodded and I went in with him to the room where my brother lay. He was plugged to machines and the regular clacking of the better was a disturbing resonance of his own infallibility. I approached his bedside, my chest tightening as I took in his bruised face.

“Christian,” I whispered, tears streaming down my cheeks. “I’m here. Please wake up.”

I gripped his hand as tightly as I could, in the hope that someone would feel me. “I need you. Please don’t leave me.”

As I sat beside him, I felt a sense of calm wash over me. I wouldn’t lose him, not now, not ever.